Transport and storage companies lost 60,200 days to worker strike action in 2015, more than any other sector last year.

According to the Office for National Statistics, the transport and storage industry reported the highest rate of days lost to labour disputes - 47 per 1,000 employees - and accounted for over a third of all working days lost in 2015 across the entire UK economy.

Some 170,000 working days were eaten up by work disagreements in the UK last year, a 78.4 per cent drop on 2014’s strike-induced wastage, most of which were down to widespread public sector strikes. This marked the fewest days lost to strike action in ten years and only the second lowest since records began.

It is believed that 28,400 transport and storage workers took part in labour disputes across 19 separate events.

Only education engaged in labour disputes more often with 29 stoppages.

Frances O’Grady, general secretary of Trades Union Congress, said the figures provide further evidence that going on strike is always a last resort when an employer won’t negotiate and won’t compromise.

“Most strikes are about people demanding fair pay, which is unsurprising given that real wages have fallen off a cliff in the past decade,” he commented.

“Good industrial relations depend on fair wages and decent rights at work. The new Prime Minister has spoken about raising wages - now it's time to live up to that promise.”